TAMPA — Alex Rodriguez was able to streamline his body this offseason, in large part, because the surgeon who operated on his hip in March 2009 finally gave his full blessings for the Yankees third baseman to return to full, no-restriction workouts, The Post has learned.

A-Rod is due to have a press conference Monday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field and plans to talk extensively about his hip being at its best since Marc Philippon performed the surgery on March 9, 2009. In the aftermath of that surgery, a good part of Rodriguez’s workouts were focused mainly on regaining strength and flexibility in the hip.

But Rodriguez returned to Vail, Colo., in the offseason and Philippon was so pleased with the state of A-Rod’s hip that he told the slugger he could do maintenance on that area and indulge in as intense workouts as he did prior to the surgery.

Rodriguez wanted to remove body fat, in particular, as a way to regain agility. So with the ability to work out more fully, Rodriguez dropped his body fat from 12 1-2 to 9 percent, and arrived at this camp leaner and more flexible.

Rodriguez also decided to lessen the intensity of his hitting and throwing drills in the offseason, feeling those were areas at which he was overdoing it. Thus, early in this camp, Rodriguez is not throwing all out in fielding drills, concentrating instead on building arm strength.